Julie Rhee

The clinic moved from the hospital location to a free standing building while in the middle of my cycles. It looks fresh and modern and I actually like this better...Hospitals in general make me anxious! I also like how they have a single lamp in the rooms, its relaxing instead of intense LED lights in your face as you are getting monitored.

The clinic is convenient and new. It’s really nice on the inside. I get strange vibes from the front desk folks. They seem distracted and sometimes (though rarely) annoyed by patients. They seem to assume people will know what’s going on sometimes and aren’t as thorough in their communication as they could be.

The clinic and staff were always very busy and seemed terribly overwhelmed. Not to mention, I was already so overwhelmed and couldn't believe I had to also be responsible for reminding the staff of what I needed. This was my first experience at a fertility clinic and I was still learning. I also realized I had to work hard to get information from anyone I came in contact with because the bedside manner was terrible. My husband and I are still technically with VIOS but are seriously considering starting over and going somewhere else. The first IUI attempt was screwed up by a scheduling issue because of VIOS. Since schedule and timing during a cycle is imperative to success, you would think they'd have a better call system. In this case, I called on Wednesday to let them know that I needed to schedule my IUI on Friday because it aligned with the appropriate cycle day. No one returned my call or even received my message!! It turns out that the message should have been forwarded to my nurse or Dr. Rhee but never was. I didn't call again b/c the automated phone answering service was all I ever got, so I waited. I never received a call. I finally got a hold of someone through the portal and scheduled an appointment on Monday knowing it was outside the cycle day range - but only because I wanted to talk to SOMONE, ANYONE, in person to see if I could still try the IUI and to let them know about the communication error that happened. I went into the clinic that next Monday and told my nurse (Haley) what happened; she apologized and asked if I still wanted to proceed with the IUI, even though I had missed the ideal cycle day! I asked my nurse what she recommended and if it would make sense to proceed even though the timing was off. Her advise was that the timing was not ideal, but that I could proceed if I want and that it was up to me to decide. Of course it's up to me, but I want a professional opinion, please! Hi, I'm new here. The whole situation made me feel like I was about to put $500 on Red at the roulette table. I decided to save my money for the next month so that I could go through the appropriate steps, with the right prescriptions, and the right timing. The next month was better, but not great. The IUI was unsuccessful, which we had anticipated b/c it was the first attempt and typically the first attempt has a high percentage to fail. The next month attempt was ramping up to be almost picture perfect - my body was responding well to the hormones, I had good follicle prospects, but on the day I went in for my IUI the nurses took me aside to inform me that my husband's sample did not contain any sperm. The IUI was a no go after all the appointments and hormones and stress. Rewind: My husband (so it turned out) had anemia, which we knew long before this particular IUI attempt, and had mentioned to our doctor and nurses casually that he had iron deficiency anemia and was seeing a doctor to figure out why. No one from VIOS mentioned or informed us that anemia can negatively affect male fertility. Luckily we did not have to pay for the IUI. After we pushed the concern to Dr. Rhee after the fact she referred my husband to a Urologist and we are currently on hold until we find out more. There was one nurse who was super helpful during this dreadful time, but unfortunately I can't remember her name. She wrote down the sperm level for me (which was not zero, but still very low) as well as my follicle count and sizes - which hadn't been clearly shared before other than a quick phone call.

Strengths: Organized, cheerful, amazingly intelligent, compassionate, prepared, good communicators, honest, hopeful, loving, patient and passionate about their work. Weaknesses: There are certain times of the day where they are the most busy but I don't mind waiting because I know they are helping so many other future moms and everyone deserves a chance to work with them!

Vios is certainly not the cheapest in town, however after experiencing and hearing about other clinics in the area, I’m convinced my care there was top quality. Billing was easy, the patient portal is easy to navigate, and prices are straightforward.

The clinic is awesome I have nothing negative to say nor have I had a bad experience since becoming a patient. I feel that they give the proper care and that they give the care that they would want if it were the other way around. I also feel that they respond to patient portal messages and phone calls in a timely fashion. I also love the personable the staff is and how the talk to you in way that is receptive and relatable. I love the office overall and I am glad that I became a patient to see me and my husband dreams of having a child together become a reality eventually.

So many strengths. Always very informative, and explains things to where I could understand my treatment. Always very warm and welcoming. All of my blood draws were completely painless. I was very rarely made to wait for any period of time, which was wonderful because I worked through all of my treatments. When I had a question that I could use the portal for, they always answered very promptly. I can’t think of a single thing I would change about Vios clinic.

Even though the location is kind of far from where my house is. I still make that travel with no hesitation because I know I will be in good hands. The strength of the staff and Dr. Rhee makes it worth the drive.

Insurance was my biggest hurdle. I have 2 insurance coverages and that seemed to make things difficult for some reason in the billing/financial dept. I did have someone reach out and i feel like she took care of the issues.

I think the online system could be updated to be more user friendly. I should be able to upload documents easily. The clinic is friendly. They are a very busy clinic. I am glad they opened up another clinic in the area to help with the overloaded staff.

Testing in the morning fills up quickly and they ran late a lot so be prepared for work purposes. They run very well. Good communication between nurses and physicians. They are getting ready to move offices so I think that will be helpful to not be in the hospital.

They are very friendly. Their schedule is sort of difficult to get on. So book in advance. You will have daily appointments at part of the monitoring process. They have snacks and coffee in the office which is nice when you are on the run. They have an office in St. Louis and one in Swansea Illinois.

Strengths: thorough from front desk to insurance coordinator and nurses and doctors. Office is honey and comfortable. It takes the edge off. Weaknesses: there have been a couple of communication issues that caused problems during our work up. Dr. Rhee addressed those with me personally and it was fine but I’ve found I need to be diligent about communicating my issues and expectations clearly.

The strengths of this clinic is after your initial appointment, you can make other appointments very quickly. We decided we were going to do IUI and got in just a few days later to start treatment toward it. There was no "you have to wait until next cycle because we do not have any open appointments". However, possibly due to this, appointments were rarely on time. On 3 occasions, we waited more than an hour for our appointment, but most frequently they ran about 20-30 minutes behind. There were occasionally appointments that were right on time, but this was more of a rarity.

The Vios office is warm and comforting. The whole staff always greeted you with a smile and made you feel at ease. It’s like one big family. Both the St. Louis and Swansea office were lovely. The only weakness is it’s hard to get a hold of someone directly. You almost always have to leave a message but that isn’t really a big deal because they are so quick to get back to you.

Strengths: Friendly, knowledgeable, compassionate, clean office space, easy to locate Weaknesses: could work on organization/communication With that being said though I would without a doubt refer a friend to this clinic

I loved the look of the clinic and the payment options they provided us with. They are in a location away from an OB office and a children’s doctors office. They have relaxing vibes throughout the clinic as well.

I think all of the employees are very compassionate about their patients and jobs. They are excellent listeners. The weakness would just be the organizational aspect. I have been passed around a few times when I call about tests or my prior auth.

The strengths with this clinic is they make you feel right at home, they make an effort to remember your name, staff is most of the time on top of their game with communication and relaying messages. Dr. Rhee is highly educated and has had high success rates and gets down to the bottom of what might be hindering you from getting pregnant. If good bedside manners matter to you, this clinic is for sure for you. Make sure to be vocal if you haven't heard back from someone from the office, be assertive after a few days to figure out whatever information you need from the office.

Strengths: Easy to communicate with the nurse. I almost never needed to email Dr. Rhee herself as I felt like Meredith addressed any concerns or questions I had right away. Easy to schedule monitoring appointments. I never waited long for bloodwork or US. Compassionate people who are invested in the quality of care they provide. Weakness: Still having a billing issue with the office, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the care I received. Currently the set up is that all retrievals, transfers, and weekend monitoring is done in Swansea, IL, which is not too far away but less convenient than their St. Louis location. Other: If you are not getting a call back right away, send an email, you may get a faster response.

Dr. Rhee and her team at Vios are beyond exceptional. Infertility is hard and going through treatment, IVF, etc is even harder. The care and attention that Dr. Rhee and her team provided my husband and I with was excellent. She was able to isolate our issues and form an appropriate treatment to help us achieve our goal of having a family. I am now pregnant into my second trimester and I would not be here without the help of Dr. Rhee. I truly felt that she always considering what was best for us physically, mentally and financially. I really felt that they all cared about what were going through and I was always confident that it would turn out ok. I would 100% recommend Dr. Rhee to anyone struggling with infertility. She was highly recommended to me by my OB and I am so glad that we decided to go with her. Everyone at Vios that we interacted with was truly exceptional. Dr. Rhee, Meredith, Chris, the ultrasound techs, etc were always patient and extremely empathetic to us as we navigated through the entire process.

Both locations have beautifully decorated office space. All of the staff is friendly. A weakness might be that some of the ultrasound techs are maybe new to fertility scans and can take a long time and also don't always share the screen so you can see what they are looking at. But I think that is just part of being a newer practice that is growing rapidly.

We found both locations to be well-run, organized and professional. We also found it to be hugely convenient that they had a location in Illinois as well. They were willing to work around our work schedules for early appointments and provided quick feedback on any question we had.

Everything was organized and I never had issues with appointments or prescriptions. You do have to be prepared to visit their Mercy office and their IL office during an IVF cycle.

I can't say enough wonderful things about Dr. Rhee and her incredible team at Vios Fertility Clinic. My husband and I interviewed them and sought their help after three years without success and two miscarriages. Dr. Rhee took the time to hand-hold us through the entire process and could begin right away. She is knowledgeable, she is kind, and I have no doubt that she's absolutely the best! What I loved most about working with the team at Vios is the friendly faces I saw through each appointment - consistently seeing the same team members, team members who know us and our story - put our minds at ease. I didn't have to explain our "saga" or where I was in the IVF process with every question, Meredith [the best damn patient coordinator of all time!] knew exactly what was going on with me. My questions were answered thoroughly and quickly - and trust me, after what we've been through, we had a lot [poor Meredith!]! I can't thank this incredible team enough for making our dreams of having a family come true! If you want the best care, the best team, and the best experience the group at Vios is the choice for you, they are truly your partner in conception. The only suggestion for change I might have is in the document given outlining medicine post-transfer. The first transfer we misread the information and we were a day or two late in starting a protocol. The sheet was a little confusing because it lists all the medicines, but not necessarily in the order you'll start them. It might be more beneficial to have sheet that outlines each day and what you take. I was able to type up my own at home, that included check marks every day that I checked when I took the medicine, and it was much easier to manage the second time around. This is SUCH a minor thing, I only thought of it because you're asking!